Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-12-04
RICH MEN s TROUBLES.
phi, Armour's Escape from POisOn-Jsy
eouId's threatening Letters = The
1--we scrapes Of Sharon and Others.
Cranks and milIionaires- He"'t''s insom
r,a-A story OF acknowledgements
Foster and Orocker Troubled
lCopyrlehs,- 1857, by the Author.
.,6anca of the G2zetta.

WASHkNGTONg OSC. l.-1SSs viz AA~~
man has his troubles as the poor man hath
His closet may be made of sweet-smell-
ing cedar, and It's polished door may
swing on golden hinges, but the skeleton
within it grins as horrible as that which
lives behind the clapboards of a cabin,
and its bony fingers squeeze the heart OF
its Croesus as tightly as though every
heart beat did not register the
adding of 500 to its owners for
tune. The newspapers sre periodically
filed with the big troubles OF these rich
men, and their lives are as filed with lit
tie annoyances as are those who OWL
cents where they own thousands OF dol
lars. The poor man may be worried as
TO where to-morroW's meals are to come
from. The anarchist, the socialist and
the boycotter visit the dreams Of the cap
itsiist, and like the Sultans of the Ara
biar Nights he sees poison in every glass
he drinks, and his dsintiest mealsturns to
ashes in the apprehension that it may be
his last one.
Phil Armour, the biggest provision
dealer in the world, came near being
poisoned at Chicago q few months ago.
An errand boy brought q sack Of buck
wheat -four TO his house from his family
grocery, and it was only through ais wife,
noticing the sack, that it was not used.
Upon Investigation it was found that
there wss enough strychnine IN the flour
to have killed ell who ate cakes Of it's
making. Jay Gould's life is often threat
ened. and every rich man has
horde of cormorants around
him who endeavor to extort
money from him in hundreds of ways.
The mail Of millionaires is full of these
threatening letters. and the following is
note received by jay Gould about six
years ago in which the writer not only
proposes to kill him, but kindly tells him
the method of his taking OF. The
author of this letter was evidently
blackmsiler. Through the cunning of
Inspector Byrnes he was caught and i'm.
prisoned, but his letter is a fair sample of
its kind, and it reads as though Guiteau
himself might have writteL it:
WINDSOR hotel, Oct. Is. 1851.
Jay Gould. +7...
SIR-It is my painful duty to inform
You that within six days from the date OF
this letter your body will have returned
TO the dust from whence it came. there
fore entrest you to make your peace with
you. This is no wish Of mine to take
your life, but am inspired and requested
by the All-Living God to do so as public
necessity and for the benefit
of the community at large. You
must undoubtedly be aware that
you have been rogue Of the first water
all your life, that through your artful
cunning and deceityou have robbed thou
sands of people OF their birrhright. You
have had no mercy. You have robbed
the rich and the poor, the father and the
fatherless, the widow and the orphan, in
discriminatory, OF their last dollar, and
through Jour villsiny have brought ruin
and destruction upon thousands
OF families. All this you have done IN
der q cloak by circulating false
tatements committing perjury, by artful
ming and deception. In fact, you have
bed both great and small, and now
Lord says you must pay for ell, that
lr death is apublic necessity in order
save thousands OF others from pain and
obstruction.
Your death will be an easy one, for l
purpose shooting you through the heart,
If possible, and If my first shot is not in
slant death I will give coup de
grace with the second shot, so
that your death shall be quick
and easy. Don't hold out any hope
that this is threatening letter nor for
stock jobbing purposes, for do not own
single share Of stocks of any kind.
neither am / interested in any. This is
simply the will of God, and he has chosen
me to carry this out. He has applied to
me in dream and requested me to slay
you as public necessity, and in doing so
God has assured me that it is by divine
Providence that am chosen to do this
act, and that by doing SO 1 shall become
public benefactor, and have sworn and
taken solemn oath before the All Living
God that will put you death.
/ intended to have shot you last Friday
yesterday when saw you with Dillon
and Sage. l had my pistol ready and
cooked, but voice from the Lord
sounded in my ear saying: "Hold on
give him time to repent, lest he descend
into everlasting punishment"
Now make your peace with God and
prepare for the fate that awaits you, and
may the Lord have mercy on your soul.
am only the agent Of the Lord. The
Lord appeared to me again lsst night snd
said: 'Jsy Gould must surely de-" and
when reasoned with the Lord in my
dream told him my life would also be
required and would be hanged. The
Lerd assured me that no harm would
become OF me, that the rope was
not made, neither was the hemp grown
to make the rope to hang me with, and
that he would deliver me out of the
hands of my enemies. This is by the ex-
press will and command of God that l
am chosen to put you to death, snd
have sworn before the All Living God,
the Great Jehovah and Redeemer of the
world, and taken q solemn oath and
kissed the Holy Bible that will carry it
out within six days from this date If op-
portunity occurs. Therefore, be pre-
pared TO meet your fate at any moment,
and may God have mercy on your soul. |
/ remain, sir, AN OLD VICTIM.
n. B.-Should not have an opportu- |
nifty within six days / will surely do so
the first opportunity that occurs.
Gould is besieged wherever he goes by |
beggars and nine-tenths of the callers OF |
rich men are OF this character Gould |
once said that If he gave away dime for |
every dollar that WAS asked of him for
charity he would not have 8 cent left |
within two years. It is the same with |
every rich man in the country, and the |
majority OF rich men have their hearts
torn daily with the piteous appeals OF
people whom they cannot gTatify. They
are also besieged by impostors and the
chances are that nine Of every ten men
who approach them are frauds.
Every effort Is made 70 extOrt money